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Saturday, 24 November 2012

The All Star Lanes / Brick Lane

Who are they?The All Star Lanes are a 1950s themed bowling alley and American diner, presenting a throwback to the good old days when you could eat and enjoy a game or two. Combining these two things together makes for great fun with friends and they trumpet their diner and bar as a great place for apres-bowling eats and drinks. Their drinks menu again reflects the 50s style of the place and consists of lots of malt drinks, milkshakes and cocktails, whilst the menu has slightly more upmarket fare for the trendy Brick Lane crowd. Ribs and burgers share space with pulled pork sandwiches and crab tacos, for example, and it remained to be seen if their burgers were up to scratch.ThoughtsThe All Star burger is a modest affair, consisting of an 8oz beef burger and salad stack, gerkhin and friesand served in a chromed metalbasket. As it turnsout, the "salad stack" is actually just the lettuce and tomatothat the burger rests on when put into the soft bun. The fries are, again, kitchen catering grade chips but at least are fully cooked (in comparison to other venues) and come with a home made burger sauce for dipping. The sauce itself is really fresh and sweet, working well either as a dip for the chips or the burger and makes for a nice side serving.For a place like the All Star Lanes, it was both surprising and encouraging that the waiter actually had the forethought to ask how I wanted my burger cooked,so I opted for the medium rare option. On receiving the burger, it came as described if a little over cooked on the outside, although when picking it up to have a first bite, the excess cooking oil and burger juices literally showered out of the bottom of the burger into the basket. It might seem like a minor complaint, but it smacked of being cooked in a rush, with little care and attention given to the burger, which was on par if not slightly better than the Hard Rock Cafe burger. Again, I was not expecting a gourmet experience, but at least I could taste some of the flavour of the meat this time around.

ConclusionNot a bad burger but not an especially good one either, with the supplied burger sauce and reasonable price doing enough to bring it up from an average score. Apparently their cocktails are better and might be worth a further look at a later date, but the burger itself bowls no strikes.Score6/10Where can I find them?http://www.allstarlanes.co.ukThere are a few venues that can be found across in Central and East London.